I will be doing the single-school June 1 primary with no MCAT thing as you did. I'm not in school right now so I think secondary application writing should be manageable, though I'll probably do little else from late June (starting templates of most likely secondaries I will receive) into ~early/mid-July when they're received and then returned ASAP. I will have some help with this (got to pay to play). Even though I probably have a bit more time to dedicate than most, with only part-time work and no school, do you think I should start to compensate for the short turnaround to some degree considering how long primary/secondary writing took in your experience?
Did you get the primary app done that early using a template from last year that ended up being the same? Blank primary apps to be filled out are not released until May, right?
Do you think I should do some early work on secondaries (from last year's templates) from schools I am highly likely to receive secondaries from during MCAT prep as well to chip away at that a bit, or too soon?
Thanks
To begin with, I wouldn't worry about secondaries at all until your primary is in and you've finished your MCAT. Now that that's out of the way, I, and most people, would recommend getting your personal statement done before the AMCAS even opens (which is at the beginning of May). I wouldn't worry about working on writing out your 3 significant experiences and EC's until the AMCAS opens since this should be a relatively quick transition from your CV/Resume to the AMCAS (Of course, this is only easy if your CV/Resume is up to date). I had my personal statement complete before the AMCAS opened then filled out the rest of it during down time between classes and studying for the test.
Secondaries generally vary in how long they'll take you to finish. Some schools, like UCLA, for example have very long secondaries with multiple questions on them that will take much longer than others that will only have maybe one or two essay questions for you to answer. You should begin writing these immediately after you've finished your MCAT for the schools you know for sure you want to apply to and you know will send you a secondary no matter what (California schools screen primaries pretty heavily and only send out a handful of secondary applications so if you're applying there then maybe wait til you actually receive the secondary). Additionally, a lot of the questions from the schools can be adapted to other schools which does make it somewhat more manageable to write them within a short amount of time. Just make sure you don't write the name of one school you're applying to and sending it to another (yikes!).
Since you're going to be taking your MCAT on the 19th, you'll have plenty of time to start drafting up some secondaries between that and when schools actually start sending them out (Beginning of July).
Bottom line (What I'd do if I were you)
1. Get your personal statement done, reviewed, and edited before the AMCAS opens during your off time (not studying or working, etc.)
2. Check to see if your resume/CV is up to date and make sure you've got the major parts of it bulleted down (What you did, what you learned, etc.).
3. Prepare for MCAT (
Didn't mention this before but start asking for letters of rec!!)
4. May: AMCAS opens - spend time periodically updating it and get it complete before June 1st (I usually did the majority of it after completing a FL since i'd be too tired to continue studying or do anything else so I could just brainlessly transfer things from my CV to the AMCAS and of course review it later)
5. June 1st. Submit.
6. All in on MCAT and take it (Only focus on this after you've submitted!)
7. Start secondaries after MCAT.
